Cubs catcher Willson Contreras set back MLB’s efforts to speed up games during Thursday’s season opener in Miami, visiting the dugout seven times during the first inning.
“We had a nice lead early and Jonny [Lester] needed to calm down a bit,” said Contreras, “so I did what good catchers do and visited my pitcher as often as possible in the first inning.”
Contreras said one of his visits included a profanity-laced set of instructions, in a callback to his recap of a past conversation with Lester at the 2018 Cubs Convention.
“I told him he better get his [expletive deleted] ass back to throwing strikes or else we were going to blow this game against a bunch of minor-leaguers,” said Contreras. “He wound up getting out of the inning, so I guess it helped.”
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